Local Businesses Lost Sleep Over ‘Nightmare on M Street’ Pub Crawl

A Halloween pub crawl attended by scores of people was a nightmare to clean up after, say several local businesses.

D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board held a fact-finding hearing on Wednesday regarding Nightmare on M Street, an annual pub crawl organized by events company Lindy Promotions earlier this year on Oct. 31.

Though direct transcripts of the hearing are not yet publicly available, Golden Triangle Business Improvement District’s (BID) executive director, Leona Agouridis, shared with Borderstan a letter she wrote to ABC board chairperson Ruthanne Miller in November.

In the letter, Agouridis expressed concern over “troubling conditions we found in the Golden Triangle on the morning of Sunday, November 1, 2015.” She also attached several photos that “show the outlandish amount of trash that our workers and businesses encountered the following morning, especially in the 1300 block of Connecticut, and the 1800 block of M Street.”

Agouridis wrote the Golden Triangle received complaints from local businesses that the bar crawl left trash and vomit strewn across the area. Additionally, Agouridis said she was told that “drunk and disorderly” revelers destroyed landscaping at one business and forced a clothing retailer to close early on the day of the event.

“The sponsors of this bar crawl profited from the activity, while the community around them dealt with the consequences,”Agouridis wrote. “As a result, the BID was uncharacteristically dirty through Tuesday morning, four days later, when we were finally able to catch up with cleaning the rest of the BID. This is not productive for the BID nor for the city.”

Agouridis conclues her letter by asking that the board make bar crawl applicants pay a clean-up deposit ahead of an event. “If the city cleans up afterwards, then the funds should go to the city; if a BID cleans up afterwards, the funds should be transferred to the BID,” she said.

She also asks the board to review its current settlement agreements and “commit to a more proactive and positive approach to managing nightlife districts.”

Lindy Productions was reached by phone earlier today but was not immediately able to comment.